The Political Economy of Regional Integration
Christina J. Schneider
Annual Review of Political Science (May, 2016).
Abstract
This paper reviews and analyzes recent research on regional integration. The review is structured along a political economy framework, and proceeds in three steps. After analyzing the development of regional agreements from a historical perspective, I first discuss regional integration as a consequence of the decision-making calculus of office-motivated political leaders who find themselves under pressure by different societal groups interested in promoting or hindering regional integration. These pressures are conveyed, constrained, and calibrated by domestic institutions, which provide an important context for policy-making, and in particular for the choice to enter RIAs. The analysis also highlights the importance of international pressures for regional integration. Second, I provide a summary of the determinants and consequences of variations in regional institutional design. Third, I analyze the ``normative'' and strategic consequences of regional integration. The paper concludes by outlining opportunities for future research, placing particular emphasis on, the domestic politics of regional integration, the causes and consequences of institutional design beyond trade agreements, as well as the consequences of the increasing number of oftentimes overlapping regional agreements.Keywords:
regional integration